Saturday, November 17, 2012

We started our new unit with a neat new wonder basket. Our conversations started around what the basket was an apple or a pumpkin. We have seemed to have settled on an apple. The basket sits in the middle of the carpet and we make predictions on what might be inside. We had lots of great guesses from candy to a new toys to a plant.

Inside we found some fall gourds. We had lots of conversation around what is a gourd and made observations. The bumpy ones became the favourite.

After we were done looking at the gourds I brought out a pumpkin with the vine still attached this part was amazing. Everyone started into a great conversation on what the vine was and why it was attached to the pumpkin. Everyone was very eager to tell me and the class how a pumpkin grows and what it needs. The idea around needing good soil, water and light was emphasized by all. I was amazed how much they knew.

After careful observations and reading of a few non fiction stories we were able to share our understanding in words and illustrations. I feel very confident that everyone in the class has a concrete understanding of a pumpkins life cycle.

These pictures demonstrate the concrete understanding the students had from seeing the life cycle develop. They independently could tell me the seed was planted in the ground and water and sun was needed to make the seed grow into a plant. Then the plant gets bigger and grew into a flower. After the flower dies a baby pumpkin is there until the pumpkin grows bigger.

Once the concept of growth was understood we knew that we could grow a new pumpkin from the old pumpkin. We cut the pumpkin open and these were some of the students comments:

Its like a web inside. -AP

The seeds grew because they were stuck inside. -AK

It is a fruit. -KD

The seeds are stuck in the pumpkin. -DM

Looks like a spider celebration.-AH

Some pumpkins grow on the farm and some animals eat them.-KH

It is gooey.-JB

What is the bottom brown part?-KD

We had a great discussion about this and where the pumpkin grew from the flower, We tried filling the pumpkin with soil to see if the pumpkin would grow inside. Unfortunately our pumpkin rotted and we made the decision as a group we should throw it out so no one would get sick. Overall a great study on pumpkins and we have moved onto our new Inquiry BATS!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

It was National Take it Outside Day on October 25. Check out the website for further information on this fun event here. The idea was to spend 45 minutes outside doing some type of educational activity. I decided to head to our favourite park and continue the great play we had done a couple weeks ago. I invited the other Kindergarten class as well as the rest of the school. We headed out at 10:45 after our regular recess. The other Kindergarten class and the grade 4/5 class met us outside. I was amazed how we got right into play. With so many kids outside it was hard to do detailed observations and documentation. I did take a few pictures and I am glad that everyone had a lot of fun. It was nice to see the dynamics of the older students with the younger ones.

Look what we found broken on the ground. We brought a piece in to dry and add to our discovery table.

We found some great places to play. What great hiding places are in here.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

We have been investigating fall in our class. What makes fall happen and what is fall? We learned that the other name for fall is Autumn. We are so lucky to live by an outdoor playground with lots of trees and other forest type shrubs. It was our first adventure out to the park and we had so much fun. It was too bad we had to head in early before our play was over. I promised we would go back soon.

We did about a couple days later. I let them just "play" The play was so fun to observe. I had everyone just self exploring in the beginning. They were all doing their own thing. Girls were trying to do flips on the bars. Each time they went around it reminded me of my own childhood and being at school. I was amazed how flexible some of them are. I showed a few boys how to balance on a beam and it was amazing to watch them try to keep there balance. A few started counting and it became a contest. Soon the rest of the boys started a game of Captain America and Pirates. Next thing I knew all the boys were having so much fun. Even the quiet ones who don't usually talk a lot in class where in full conversation and completely engaged.

The girls found an old stump that was covered in moss. If first was a girls fort but then soon became a stage where they each put on a show for each other. Then the play changed to a game of Mr. Wolf where the wolf was on the stump. Then some girls who were suppose to be the wolf ended up playing in an old evergreen with great swinging branched. Soon all the girls where swinging in the tree. All the while the boys were engaged with their own play.

Signs of fall as seen by the class they told me what to take picture of.

This was the first tree we saw and they immediately thought it was a sign of fall. Afterwards someone said there isn't many leaves falling yet.

I am moving this blog forward. Instead of what I had originally started out as I am going to use it as my documentation for my self, my students and their parents. Of course it will be filled with other Reggio Inspired activities so other teachers will be hopefully inspired too!

My room as I see it today. Not completely Reggio but comfortable and homey. A welcoming space

My reading area. The kids love it!

Mt art area and the listening centre on the other side of the reading area.

My meeting space and Calendar board.

Here are a few projects we have worked on:

A few people inspired these activities but I am not sure who to give credit to as they were on a few sites. I apologize for not giving credit where it should go. I know the apple investigation if from Julie Lee and you can get that here.

I hope you enjoy my new look in my room and I will be posting my first documentation soon.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

It has been a while since I have had time to post. Mom of two running around forgetting about work. Well it is time to start thinking about work again. I go back to work 4 days with a fabulous job share partner on Mondays this September.

So it is time to set up my room. It is almost like starting from scratch I have nothing up and my room is very different from how I usually have it. This week I started to think about what I want it to look like. I have decided lime green and teal are my two colour choices. Many of my items are already that colour scheme. First I needed Pinterest inspiration so I headed to my thousand pins and found this.

I absolutely love this classroom from Melanie Ralbusky's School Girl Style and her website is full of great ideas. But for me I need something else so I decided that Dots of Turquoise from Creative Press was the way to go. I bought non fading paper in blue and green and the borders.

Well I then strated looking for more insperation on Pinterest. And I found another great site where you can purchase the labels and word wall letters. Perfect!!!! I fell in love with this.

The website Classroom Couture is beautiful. Check out the pink and black ideas as well. So I purchased the set for $10.00 well worth it as I am going to use the alphabet for my word wall, the numbers for math centres (thank you Debbie Diller for keeping it simple) and the ones above for my students book bins (Daily 5) and Library Bags! Wow It is starting to come together.

For my word wall I try and keep it words we know and not add too many Grade 1 wwords. I have a set that I purchased but are red and typical school looking I think I need something else. After a bit more searching I found a great blogger and great early learning writer Erica Bohrer. I use her ideas a lot. Well she has a very cute classroom and she also shares.

I am thinking I might need to purchase them at her Teachers pay Teachers store. She has some great classroom set up too!

Well this is as far as I have gotten. I am in need to figure out my math centres and Daily 5 and then I will be set to go in and really decorate. I will post pictures of what my room looks like when I am all done.

I love seeing peoples classroom and reading your blogs please keep me posted on how you are doing. I hope to keep the blog updated. My goal is at least once a month!!!!! I think that is managable.